Arbitrage (*½)

Directed by: Nicholas Jarecki

Starring: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta, Nate Parker, Stuart Margolin, Chris Eigeman, Graydon Carter, Bruce Altman

Seen: November 22^nd 2013

*½ Out of ****

In the tradition of late 80’s and early 90’s thrillers like Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Disclosure, to name only a few, Arbitrage is a psychological thriller revolving around dishonesty, fraud, sexual infidelity, murder, and more. It even feels as if it might have been made in that timeframe, if you let a few technological advances slide. The overall feeling of the movie makes my skin crawl as the main character is clearly not the good guy, and the good guys are the ones who are taken down while corruption rules the roost.

Robert Miller (Gere) has managed to build a very successful hedge fund over the years with his daughter Brooke (Marling), which they are in the process of selling for a handsome profit. He has a dark secret however, in that he manipulated his company’s books to hide a huge loss from an unsavoury investment, and to attempt avoiding arrest for fraud. As if that’s not enough, he’s unfaithful to his wife and pretty much everyone he knows. When he goes out to see his mistress Julie (Casta) one night, they plan to go away together for a while, but soon after leaving Miller falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car. Julie dies in the accident, and Miller decides to cover it up and leaves the scene of the accident, calling and old ‘friend’ of his, Jimmy (Parker), to come pick him up. Miller arrives home very late, and his wife Ellen (Sarandon) awakes as he slides into bed, obviously in pain.

The police get on Miller’s trial in the form of Detective Bryer (Roth), who wants to arrest Miller for manslaughter, but has trouble collecting enough convincing evidence. Meanwhile his daughter discovers the irregularities in the company books and decides to confront Miller, as her future is also on the line. Miller keeps on placing others in peril and risking others’ careers and lives in attempts to stay ahead of the law, and Miller smoothly manipulates events to serve him without thought of the consequences to others.

Richard Gere is in fine form here as the corrupt Robert Miller, and Tim Roth is just as good as Detective Bryer, desperately trying to get the bad guy. Susan Sarandon really nails the role of the scorned wife with a comeuppance that is close to the only redeeming factor in this movie, and Brit Marling similarly impresses as the wronged daughter losing all respect for her father. The movie feels old already, and the dark tone doesn’t help it one bit. I’ve seen political thrillers with known plots/endings that were infinitely more engaging and taught than Arbitrage, and I have to admit to really being bored at times. Arbitrage received critical acclaim, and I can for the life of me not really fathom why, apart from Gere’s performance. This movie did nothing for me, and was in fact a waste of my time and money.